Hair

I'm about to get random on you here... this post is about hair! 

{I'll tell you why in a minute.}

It's funny because as a teen and young adult, I did just about everything except for perm my hair. 

I went blonde... (orangey-blonde?)

red...

black...

umm... whatever you call this...

I once broke an entire chunk of my hair off because it was so fried. 


Another time, I created some kind of chemical burn and lost more than half of the length, a week before my high school grad! Thanks to the sympathetic hair dresser I still had some hair left and it ended up looking like I had more hair than I really did for my grad night.

Then I tried to grow it out. My hair was natural at the top, with faded black on the ends...

Then I said forget it! And I did different shades of brown...

Then red highlights...

Then when Gavin was only a few months old, I chopped it all off. It was down to the middle of my back and I did this...





The hairdresser was scared. She was probably afraid that I would think it was a huge mistake afterwards and take it out on her. It was a huge shock, but awesome.

And ever since then I haven't coloured, highlighted or otherwise chemically treated my hair. I've gotten trims once or twice a year and that's it. Now it has been three whole years and my hair is finally as long as it was before the chop! 
{thus the reason for this post}

I'm not sure I'll ever be able to dye it again. Although I could do a huge cut again - it sure was nice not finding long hairs all over the house.
Isn't natural hair is so much healthier and cheaper than coloured hair? I love it.

Hair Adventures

The other day I got a little adventurous with my hair! I usually don't do much with it, but I just felt like it that morning. I love all the vintage inspired styles I see around so I went and tried one out. I just went for it, there was no tutorial. It turned out great, but the scarf needed to be fixed a lot... my head is the wrong shape for headbands/scarves/etc, they just slide off. Oh well!

I faked bangs, since my hair is all a similar length, by kind of looping my hair around then pinning and gluing hair spraying it in place. I put the rest in a loose bun then tied the scarf around and tucked the ends in. It was really easy. :)

Glitter Nails

I decided to show a little bit of halloween spirit this year by making my nails glittery and orange.

Ok, I know it's not much, but oh well. It was fun anyways and now I know how to glitter nails. It's really easy.

What you need:

Clear nail hardener or clear coat
Loose glitter
A sheet of paper (creased in the centre, but unfolded)
Time!

How to do it:

*Make sure your nails are clean and dry.
*Paint a generous coat of clear coat on. As long as it stays on the nail, you can't have too much (only do one or two nails at a time so the clear coat doesn't dry before you glitter it).
*Over your sheet of paper, sprinkle lots of loose glitter on to cover the whole nail.
*Tap your finger lightly to let any excess glitter fall off.
*Allow to dry for a few minutes, then press glitter lightly onto the nail.
*If there are spots that are missing glitter, apply another coat of clear polish and glitter.
*Once you're happy with the amount of glitter and have allowed it to set a bit, apply a final coat of clear nail polish on top.
*And to prevent waste: carefully pick up your sheet of paper, fold along the crease, and dump the glitter back into its original container!

It takes this a long time to dry because of the amount of polish you have to put on. I would suggest doing it shortly before your favourite tv show is about to start so you can just sit still and not use your fingers for an hour or so while they dry! Use nail polish remover and a q-tip to clean up any polish/glitter on the skin around your nails.

New Glasses!

School is starting to pick up and I figured I needed some new glasses to help me look smart! Um, just kidding. I actually had my old Dolce & Gabanna pair for about... 4 years... and it was time for an update. The prescription was outdated and the scratches were so bad that I could see them when the glasses were on my face!

I've had glasses for about 13 years and I remember when I first got glasses in grade 5, I was so excited. I thought glasses were so cool. Then as time went on I realized how much (or little) glasses were valued. This became incredibly clear to me at the age of 13 when I got contacts and suddenly the kids who had spent the last 3 years torturing me thought I was someone to become friends with and the boys also started lining up to date me (ok, I'm sure some other physical changes also had something to do with this as well). So by that point I thought that glasses were terrible! In high school I got some really awesome contacts that I could keep in for a extended periods of time, which I loved. After high school, though, my eyes decided that they weren't going to put up with contacts everyday any more. And there were no longer thirteen year old children basing my value as a human being on things like if I did or didn't where glasses, so I learned to love them. While I have dreamed about having perfect eye sight and not needing glasses, I have come to respect them as a fun accessory.

I really wanted to get some funky, colourful plastic frames this time, but apparently my nose is too skinny where the bridge would sit and none of them fit my face! Oh well. I ended up getting one pair really similar to my last pair, with a bit more of an interesting shape (not so square):

And then I got a pair that is a bit more fun! These are actually from a "Marilyn Monroe" line and they are pretty awesome. I love the cat-eye look, but dark-coloured, full-framed ones are just too much for me. These are the perfect compromise, cute and retro, but light-coloured and half-framed to keep them toned down:

Yay!

PS - New glasses totally counts as one of my 23 awesome things! These were long overdue...

My Jamberry Nails

A little while ago I won the jamberry nail give away at I Am Momma Hear Me Roar and I got my nail shields in the mail the other day! I thought I would share them with you. :)

I took a couple pictures of all my toes and was kind of surprised by how ugly feet can be. So this is the picture you get instead! I liked all of the options jamberry offered, but I decided on these because there is no way I could ever do this with nail polish. They came in a pack of 18 (lots, awesome!) and were easy to apply. Guess how many I used for all of my toes?

TWO!

So I think I'll be getting more than the 2-3 uses that they say you'll get! I'm excited to try them out on my fingernails too, but I'm going to leave that for a couple weeks because I can't see these holding up to well with my job!

Accessory

I used to love fashion, style, accessories, clothes....
But in the last couple years, I've been troubled with the question "why?"
Kind of crazy, right?
It's something I'm trying to get past:
The reason "just because I want to" is a good enough reason!

So I bought a cool necklace the other day just because I felt like it. Gavin actually picked it out for me. It's huge and five years ago I would have thought it was totally tacky, but it's great. I love the warm, bright colours and that it has a little weight to it. And I've already gotten a few compliments on it, which doesn't hurt either. :)

And it was only $12 {and came with matching earrings} at Walmart!

Christmas Creations: A Purse (that I am in love with)

Good Morning!

I hope everyone had a fabulous Christmas. We did! We were actually pretty tired on Christmas day because the food from Christmas eve didn't sit well with the little guy and we were up half the night, but we didn't mind. Being tired gave us an excuse to be late and take it easy. Nothing wrong with that!

Now that Christmas is over, and everyone has received their gifts, I can start sharing my creations! My step-sister, Erin, commented on my purse a while back, saying that she liked it and I could make her one for her birthday/Christmas (she was a Christmas eve baby). It's often hard to get any ideas out her, so I was all over that one. I decided that she could handle a pretty funky bag, so I decided to dye this black and white IKEA fabric that I had on hand. This is what the undyed fabric looks like:

And this is the finished product:

I would say this bag is definitely loud, but I think Erin might love it even more than I do. The lining is made from some batik fabric I bought at Fabricland ages ago just because it was on sale and pretty. The bag is made from a pattern in Meg McElwee's Sew Liberated (link is to her blog, of the same name). I made my own purse from the pattern, but I changed some things this time. I found the strap too wide on mine, so I made it a little thinner. For the lining, instead of doing pleats like on the shell, I traced the size of the front and back panels after they were pleated, and cut pieces that size for the lining. Why? So I could add a zippered pocket, of course! There is also a small flat pocket on the right side, which you can't really see in the photos. I hate to have a purse with no pockets at all, so I hope these will do.

Also, a note on fabric dying: I used Rit concentrated liquid fabric dye for this. I also dyed a shirt, just because this fabric took minutes (literally) to dye, so it felt like a waste to just dump the pot after that. And I still have a lot of the concentrate leftover. Fabric dying is actually quite fun, and produces unique results, so I plan on doing more in the near future!

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A Non-Food Post

Hello!

I was just sitting on my couch browsing the www when I came upon this etsy shop. I love it! I really wish I was not a student and I could afford dresses like these. Here's my absolute favourite. I'm totally in love with this dress:

That's right, it's AMAZING! :)

Flashback Number 3

Good Morning!

Well, I didn't get around to scheduling this post last night because, well, I was being lazy. I just found out about some big changes going on in my family right now, so last night I just wanted to zone out on the tv. Fortunately, the 40 Year Old Virgin just happened to be playing on tv, so that was good for a laugh.

I decided to just do another flashback today. I don't think I've ever shown off any of the jewelry on my blog, so we'll take some time for that. I got really into jewelry making before sewing. I've known how to sew for longer, but I didn't do it a whole lot until I got set into crafty mode by the jewelry. I've made lots, so I'll just show you guys what I've sold over the last year or two!

And this stuff I didn't sell, but I made it for my cousin's wife (and my other cousin, the bridesmaid, on the left) for their wedding as my gift to them.

Flashback!

Good Morning!

Since I have a bunch of stuff on my plate right now, I'm trying not to take on any new projects. I'll be finished with everything that I have going on right now in 11 days, so until then I should focus on the heap of stuff I have already taken on. Unfortunately, that doesn't help me with producing blog content. I'm putting together a bunch of posts about my sister's baby shower, but I won't publish those until after the event (October 9)!

So I have decided to take you guys back in time to see some of my favourite older projects that I completed before I began blogging. :)

For my first flashback post, I'm going to pick diaper bags as my theme! When I was pregnant I didn't find a diaper bag anywhere that I liked that would cost me less than $100. As a soon-to-be parent, I wasn't really willing to drop that kind of money on a diaper bag. In hindsight, I know that the cash would have been justifiable because of how much use the bag has gotten/still gets. I'm really glad I made my own, though. I remember a couple of friends of mine saying one day, "We were talking about your diaper bag, and we both think it's so you!" They didn't know at the time that I made it myself, but it made me proud of it.

I also made a bunch of matching accessories to go with it. They also got a lot of use. I used flannel fabric for the bag because it was soft and appealing to me (vs. the nylon of most diaper bags). Also, I can just toss it in the washing machine when it gets dirty. Let's face it, baby things always get dirty.

The next diaper bag I made was as a gift to a girl I had never met. I had heard about her struggles and felt for her. I knew she didn't have a lot, and that I didn't have a lot to give, but this felt like the perfect gift to me.

I also made accessories for this one, including a receiving blanket that matched! You can see the inside of the bag here, it has two elastic pockets. When I was first making my bag, I didn't like the idea of these pockets. I'm glad I didn't skip them, though, because they are awesome! This bag was also made of flannel.

This next one was my first diaper bag that wasn't flannel. I love the fabric, but found that it showed wrinkles very easily with the interfacing I used. Not a huge deal, but something I took note of. I also padded the strap with fusible fleece on this one because after using my own, I thought it would be a nice feature.

I've already showed you guys this next one. It is the most recent diaper bag I've made, and definitely the most well-thought (and expensive!). My sister and her husband picked the fabric and then I went to work. Instead of just using interfacing, I used fusible fleece and interfacing. This made it sturdy and also fixed the wrinkling problem of the last bag. I also added an inner zipper pocket on the front side. I hope they love it as much as I loved mine!

There is also this other bag I made that is similar to the diaper bags. I made my own pattern, but based it off of the diaper bag pattern. The bag is ginormous, to say the least, but I still really like it.

As you can see, my huge Western Civilizations textbook looks small in the bag. That is how ridiculously large it is. I decided it wasn't quite what I wanted and my cousin's wife ended up buying it from me. :)

OH! By the way, the pattern I used was Simplicity 2924. I'd love to know if anyone else has used the pattern. :)